It was a problematic turbo kit that caused an untimely death for the stock engine in his MR2 Spyder. None of us would have blamed Mike Ngo for packing up shop and moving on, but instead his remedy for the situation was to swap in a 2ZZ-GE engine out of a late model Celica. He then turbocharged his car after being accepted into the second American Touge challenge, (an event held earlier this year by Best Motoring Japan, which also placed Japanese D1 driver, Yasuyuki Kazama into the driver's seat for evaluation on a closed-road circuit). Not long after American Touge 2 passed, Mike sold the turbo kit and engine. He had another plan of action he was ready to take, and its name begins with K--that is, K for K20.
"I was ultimately tired of my cars running like sh--," says Mike. "Neither of my [Toyota] engines or the turbo kits I used ever ran right, so I looked to Half Way out of Japan for inspiration." Half Way--if you didn't know--debuted a pair of MR2 Spyders at this year's Tokyo Auto Salon that, for just $35K, would get you a turn-key deal of a K20 swap, body kit and suspension. But seeing how it would be difficult to just ship his car over to Japan, Mike had to find a more economical way of making the K20 work--after all, this particular swap has proven successful (not to mention reliable) in many Hondas, so why couldn't it work here?
Mike had the car shipped to R Crew, located in the San Francisco Bay Area of California where they got the first K20-powered MR2 Spyder in the US up and running. The engine dropped in perfectly of course, after fabricating engine mounts that weren't far off from the factory mounting points. R Crew also figured out how to use a complete factory Integra Type R drivetrain by adding a Hasport transmission mount, whereas the Half Way conversion uses a custom bell-housing to get it working.
Since the K20 sees great support from the aftermarket, performance wouldn't be a problem. So R Crew fabricated its own custom three-inch intake, header and exhaust, but also installed a Walbro fuel pump and a Hondata intake manifold gasket. The Spyder also benefits from the limited slip differential included in the transmission from factory, but has a new clutch from ACT that is perfect for road racing. Church Automotive tuned a Hondata K-Pro ECU to allow the K20 to make 238hp at 168lb-ft; Mike estimates it's good for low to mid-12s on a drag strip.